Super Flamini to the rescue as Arsene desperately needed this win by KM
As an Arsenal fan you always enjoy a win against Spurs at the Lane, don’t you? The chance to mock that Spurs fan sitting on the desk next to you while you drink your afternoon tea. Out of all the possible goalscorers, who would’ve thought? Mathieu Flamini scored two fine goals to sink Spurs at the joy of 3000 Arsenal away fans.
Onto the game, it wasn’t the best performance you’ll ever see. We were sloppy in defense again. We can point to a few players who were terrible starting off with the obvious one – Mathieu Debuchy. I mean, he was responsible for the first goal we conceded in Zagreb and he was absolutely tormented yesterday. Danny Rose was having a free run against him. He also failed to close down their player when we conceded another own goal.
Going forward, captain Mikel Arteta is another one who really contributed to the case that Arsenal do need a new DM. We are all thankful to Arteta for what he’s done, but his role yesterday was to calm play down, hold the ball, protecting the back four, but instead, for large periods of the game, Tottenham needed just one pass to get from their defense to our box. It was like our midfield was gone in another dimension.
Olivier Giroud is the third player that had a terrible game. He was just walking round with his hands in the air. In the second half he didn’t even bother with trying to jump for a long ball or fight for it at all. He’s out of confidence and his finishing is miles off class. He had a 1 on 1 with a keeper on the ground chance and he didn’t score which can only root him further down the bench.
On the positive note you have to look at Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain whose ability to run past a player, his physicality and pace can be a real threat. He needs to work on the defensive part of his game, which is really bad. He gives the ball too easily in dangerous positions which cost us a numerous times. If Wenger can work with him on that, we’d have a very crafty player on our hands.
Aaron Ramsey for me had a good game in the number 10 role. He was isolated for large parts of the game thanks to nobody round him making any sort of effort to want the ball. Ramsey was the only one pressing up front, but when Alexis came on he sprung into life with a number of fine passes and some nice ball control.
Per Mertesacker was solid in defense. No matter what people say about him, he was badly missed against Chelsea and Zagreb. He was calm in the air and solid in a busy defense. A shout out to David Ospina who made a terrific save and was unlucky to concede from Chambers, although I think the keeper could’ve told the young Englishman to leave the ball. Gibbs made a nice clearance to deny an acrobatic Kane effort but that’s the only positives the defense can get.
Mathieu Flamini… I never get bored seeing that goal on replay. Fantastic really. I mean you have to give him MOTM just because he showed Giroud and Walcott (and Kane) how it’s done. His movement on the first goal is exactly what you’d expect from a striker like Aguero. To be a predator, lurking for the loose ball. Instead Giroud was nowhere near it.
The second goal was those one in a thousand where you just say you’re gonna smash it and it’s in. Again where’s Giroud? And would he or Walcott score that volley? On the defensive part I don’t think Flamini was too notable although I think he was better than Arteta. I still think he’s past his best and we need another DM ,but just that game alone makes me feel great to have him. And as far as I know Ozil loves the guy and you cannot deny his character and desire to fight.
It was nice to see Campbell who was looking lively in the first 30 minutes along with Chamberlain. We had speed. We have to face it that the possession football is just not our thing anymore and go with pace and technique which we have in excess. The defense was a major worry though. It was way too easy for Spurs to get chances. Apart from our regular back four, the backups really failed to impress. Simple mistakes cost us dearly. The problem here is that they keep repeating themselves.
Regardless, I agree with the rotations. We have a big squad in numbers which turns out to be not so big in quality, but the fact is we have to rotate sometimes. But we have to question Arsene once again as substitutes were late like always. Why do Tottenham have to score or it has to be minute 70 for Wenger to make a change? We were totally dominated after our first goal and we did absolutely nothing to change that until we conceded.
We conceded an own goal too, which is starting to get on my nerves, because 3/4 of the goals we conceded so far are either an own goal, or a childish mistake that left the opposition player 1 on 1 with our keeper. It’s a sorry stat if you want to be at the top.
And that leaves to my final point. Fear of failure.. Wenger said to Mourinho. Funny words coming from the only manager in the world knowing that whatever happens he’ll not be sacked. What does Wenger fear? Nothing, that’s the problem. Why would you work hard, if you’ll get paid a huge amount of money no matter what?
Another question to the owner, who took 3 million out of the club for ‘advisory reasons’. I mean an ultra-mega rich billionaire takes 3 million out of a football club that spent 11m on a goalkeeper and announces 200 million profit? And what advice was that? Do not sack Wenger no matter what?
When you don’t have enough storage for you photos, you go out and buy more. Football is not that much different. Quality comes at a price. Quality is always available, it’s just that we don’t want to look at it, or we don’t want to pay it’s price. Manchester United spent absurd money and announced better financial results than Arsenal.
I’m not saying just spend money for the sake of it. But when there’s clear evidence that we’re in need of a few players, buying just a GK is not a solution. You learn with Wenger though that this is the way it’s gonna be. We’ll always be 1 step short, so there’s an excuse.
People in England love to make conclusions from one game. That’s why after this win it’ll be like “Oh all the problems are gone and Arsenal are title contenders again”. A top club would have dispatched the chances Spurs had and we’d be in trouble. Lewandowski alone scored 5 goals in 10 minutes.
Oh we have Bayern in our group. This is the real check. If we want to be the best we have to compete with the best.
Cheers.
Konstantin